In the World, Not of the World

”Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.“

1 John 2:15-17 NIV

I have always struggled with understanding that first verse. One thing that’s always in the back of my mind is the struggle with guilt, in particular when it comes to hobbies and the things in life that I enjoy. A lot of this I’m sure stems from the repetitiveness of thoughts that swirl around at any given time. I think it also comes from the idea that there’s always something more productive I could be doing at any given time. From a belief in God perspective, there’s the thought of should I be praying more, should I be reading the Bible more, should I be worshipping more? I do think when those questions come up, it’s always safe to err on the side of yes, I should be doing more of all of those things!

We also all have hobbies. Things that we enjoy doing. Things that keep us from getting burnt out when going through the struggles and responsibilities of life and adulthood. For me, I enjoy playing video games, watching movies and good series, listening to audiobooks, and watching football.

I’ll admit for a while, I was looking for justification for doing those things. Let’s be honest, when it comes to video games, movies, shows, etc., there’s a lot of questionable content in those forms of storytelling and entertainment, and I’d be obsessing and trying to figure out what is “sin” and what is “acceptable.” That’s a whole other topic, but practically speaking I know what forms of content would lead to unnecessary temptation, and what things I should avoid. I also know at the time I was really looking into this, my “hobbies” were my idols and I didn’t have a heart of surrender when it comes to those things, but instead was looking for justification.

Ultimately I thank God for the revelation and heart that I have to be willing to surrender anything to God, otherwise it is an idol. If anything is more important than God to me that in itself is an idol. Being able to see that clearly and know that Jesus is my Lord has brought extreme clarity in those situations. Now when it comes to that, it’s not a what’s right or wrong decision, but what’s good verses best decision, as I’ve heard many people say. Being able to differentiate convictions from the Holy Spirit verses guilt and fear from the enemy is something I’m always praying for, while also not putting my hobbies above my love for God.

I wanted to close with a few paragraphs from the book titled “Heaven” by Randy Alcorn. Please note I transcribed this from the audiobook so I don’t have the exact page numbers or chapters, however I found it to be extremely enlightening and it helped me see the bigger picture of how God loves us. How the best things in this life are gifts from Him to be enjoyed and are what makes us human.

“To say this world is not your home to a person who is fully alive and alert to the wonders of the world is like throwing a bucket of water on kindling’s blaze. Instead we should fan the flames of that blaze to help it spread, not seek to put it out. Otherwise we malign our God given instinct to love the earthy home God made for us, and we reduce spirituality into a denial of art, culture, science, sports, education, and all else human. When we do this we set ourselves up for hypocrisy, for we may pretend to disdain the world while sitting in church, but when we get into the car we turn on our favorite music and head home to barbecue with friends, watch a ball game, play golf, ride bikes, work in the garden, or curl up savoring a cup of coffee and a good book.

We do these things not because we are sinners but because we are people. We will still be people when we die and go to heaven. This isn’t a disappointing reality, it’s God’s plan. He made us as we are, except the sin part, which has nothing to do with friends, eating, sports, gardening, or reading. We get tired of ourselves, of others, of sin and suffering and crime and death, yet we love the earth, don’t we? I love the spaciousness of the night sky over the ocean, I love the coziness of sitting next to Nanci on the couch in front of the fireplace, blanket over us and dog snuggled next to us. These experiences are not heaven, but they are foretastes of heaven. What we love about this life are the things that resonate with the life we were made for. The things we love are not merely the best this life has to offer, they are previews of the greater life to come.”

——

“When I speak elsewhere in the book of the multifaceted joys of the resurrected life and the new universe, some readers may think but our eyes should be on the Giver not the gift, we must focus on God, not on heaven. This approach sounds spiritual, but it erroneously divorces our experience of God from life, relationships, and the world, all of which God graciously gives us. It sees the material realm and other people as God’s competitors, rather than as instruments which communicate His love and character. It fails to recognize that because God is the ultimate source of joy, and all secondary joys derive from Him, to love secondary joys on earth can be, and in heaven, always will be, to love God, their source.

Because of the current darkness of our hearts, we must be careful not to make idols out of God’s provisions, but once we’re freed from sin and we’re in God’s presence, we’ll never have to worry about putting people and things above God, that would be unthinkable. Were we thinking clearly it would be unthinkable to us now. God isn’t displeased when we enjoy a good meal, marital sex, a football game, a cozy fire, or a good book. He’s not up in heaven frowning saying “stop it, you should only find joy in me.” This would be as foreign to God’s nature as our Heavenly Father as it would be to mine as an earthly father if I gave my daughters a Christmas gift then pouted because they enjoyed it too much.”